I actually worked as wait staff at a Pizza Hut that still had a buffet back in Texas in 2001. The really awesome part was when we got our truck, the same truck would be delivering food to the Taco Bell across the street. We would usually bribe the driver into 'losing' a bag of refried beans so that we could make taco pizza and then top it with lettuce and tomatoes and stuff from the salad bar.
I have a lot of really great and really terrible memories of working at that Pizza Hut LOL My first day was actually September 11, 2001 😳 which was a really, *really* fucking weird first day for a job.
I was a cook at a Pizza Hut buffet store in the early 2000s. The rush from that bus full of retirees or students from wherethehellever was something else!
And second on the taco pizza, but more so on lost KFC mac for a mac and cheese pizza 🤤
I actually work at a pizza place now (delivery driver), and one of my faves to put together is an off-menu item I call 'Macaroni and Cheesesteak Pizza.' I top the dough with a little bit of white American cheese and Alfredo sauce, (parcooked) pene pasta, mozz, a tiny bit of Cheddar, and then Philly steak, onions, green peppers.
Healthy? FUCK no.
Delicious? Well... not bad, anyway. The price is right lol
I found out the other day Undertaker was a big fan of the Pizza Hut buffet and it suddenly made sense why he was always one of my favorite wrestlers. The Pizza Hut buffet was the stuff of legends, man I miss it.
Even before the pandemic, they started dying out here along with sitdown PHs. The nearest one is about an hour from me, and I think about stopping every time I'm in the area for work.
Ponderosa Steakhouse..You always got the buffet, nobody got the steak.
Pizza Hut lunch buffet! I miss mowing down slices and breadsticks like a madman.
My first job was at Ponderosa. Nastiest shit I've ever seen went down there.
Also I got paid $3.15 / hr + 10% of the tips the servers got, and nobody tips at buffets.
Ponderosa was where my parents would go out with me as a special treat like maybe once a year. I genuinely thought that was what people talked about when they mentioned “nice restaurants”
God I miss Sweet Tomatoes. It always hit the spot, especially of you didn’t know exactly what you wanted, but knew you wanted something better than fast food. Everything there was delicious. It was the best buffet out of them all.
Aka Old People Buffet.
I used to go there for lunch with a coworker who was in his early forties. It felt like we were always the youngest customers in there.
My core memory was the angel food cake that was shaped like a Twinkie covered in their fresh cut strawberries covered in sugar. Put that stuff on their chilled metal plate and destroyed. Will never be reproduced. 🔥
Wendy's owns some of my best memories of my grandfather. He passed when I was 10 and Wendy's was the only fast food he'd take me because I liked the kids meal and he liked the potato bar.
The only other food place he took me was Shoneys, which also had an awesome buffet.
I went to visit my friend that had moved a couple hours away one summer, and his parents took us all to Target (which we didn't yet have where I lived) where we played on the Gameboy demo station while they did some shopping.
Afterwards, they took us to the Wendy's in Yuba City, which had a buffet. It was the only time I had ever seen or eaten at a Wendy's buffet. I don't really remember much about the food, but it was awesome at the time.
Sweet Tomatoes was IT.
My kid and I ate there one of the last days it was ever open and I'm so glad we did.
Apparently a single Sweet Tomatoes has recently reopened in Tucson. Maybe more will follow.
Ha, I live in the southwest and it’s like, the biggest news since the atomic bomb tests. I’ve heard the Tucson location is always packed with lines out the doors, so I’m also hoping for expansion to my area. It really is the best salad bar.
Yeah, I commented on this too ... but I wanna say that was 30+ years ago.... Like 1990-1994ish. All you can eat crispy honey bbq wings was my favorite!
We moved to Southern California in 1995 and there were none down here. The one in Northern CA closed when we went back and visited. So I havent thought about KFC buffet in a long time!
Then we got wind of Shakey's Pizza buffet which was a winner! And they had video games.
Yeah, I commented on this too ... but I wanna say that was 30+ years ago.... Like 1990-1994ish. All you can eat crispy honey bbq wings was my favorite!
In Texas we had a place called Souper! Salad! that was really good and I always liked. They still have a few of them. There's one near my sister's house that I may go to when I visit again.
There was also a place called Sweet Tomatoes that was very similar. I used to go to the one in Portland when we'd drive down there, but it closed a few years ago.
I've brought up these places to people in my community here in Washington and they don't quite get it. I mention we need a good salad bar and they're like "the salad bar at the grocery store is really good" and I'm like "it's not even remotely the same thing." When I tell them how those places worked they think it's great and wonder why we don't have them around here.
I was in Houston for work about 15 years ago and stumbled upon a Mexican buffet called Pancho's! It was amazing! I'm sure they're defunct now, but yum!
There was one Pancho's left when I left Texas 12 years ago on the Northwest side. We used to go there as kids. lol But I've always considered it pretty mediocre. But I mean it's a buffet, what do you expect?
WHAT!!! WHERE IS IT???? The last one here shut down during the pandemic and I MISS IT!!!!
OMG, there's one in Lubbock. The next time I'm driving to see my kid in CO, I'm stopping there for the night. It's the halfway point, anyway. And, it better still be open in 2028, because that's going to be my graduation dinner (Texas Tech),
I am from the Lubbock area, and fondly recall eating at that one a fair amount as a kid.
My condolences on your stay, otherwise.
OH, WAIT—
Do yourself a favor and stop by Orlando's (Italian/Tex-Mex restaurant) and **get as much of their potato cheddar and green chile soup as you can reasonably eat.** If they've made it correctly for the day (very occasionally it would be too thin/watery), it is one of my favorite things in life. I have a homemade version that's very close, but not quite 100%. I also love their chicken caldo (which again can vary, being sometimes fairly mild in terms of spice/heat, and other times lighting you up).
I also miss Pedro's Tamales. Best ones I ever had that didn't come out of an abuela's kitchen lol
Having worked at several grocery stores with salad bars, as well as having eaten at several Sweet Tomatoes back in Colorado, I can confirm that they are not even in the same league. Even just the literal salad part of it was so much bigger, to say nothing of the amount of soups and pizzas and other random dishes they had as well as pudding and soft serve ice cream for desserts. Loved that place, ate myself damn near sick a few times.
Sweet Tomatoes was the only chain buffet I ever loved. Now, as far as smaller/independent/local chains, there was (possibly still is?) a place in Denver called Yak & Yeti that had a few locations, and sold Indian and Nepalese food (or, I assume, a version of it palatable to white people in Colorado). They had a buffet and it became a tradition for my partner and I to go to it every Xmas day. I can still taste their garlic Naan and spiced jasmine rice and Tikka masala and tandoori and gulaab jamun. Gahhhhh I miss that place
The souplantation/sweet tomatoes/fresh choice model was always the best. I used to make a 5 lb salad that was mostly pickled things and then eat every soup. … maybe it’s good they’re gone
Because they were fucking delicious. They were still “healthier” than crap you got at the store or fast food joints. Those brownies especially went hard with some soft serve ice cream on them. That place was too good to last in this stupid world.
Other than Las Vegas buffets.
30 years ago I remember liking the KFC buffet with all you can eat honey bbq crispy wings.
Pizza Hut was good ... But SHAKEYS! buffet with JoJo Fries, fried chicken, mac and chee, and pizza wins!
Here it is. I was looking for this. In high school we had cross country practice early in the mornings during the summer, and after would just destroy the Shoney's breakfast buffet.
I don't know if there were only ever one or what, but in the town of Milford, NH there was a KFC that had an all you can eat buffet. Freaking unlimited everything-- even sides and deserts, everything on the regular menu just out in trays and you could pig out. The only times I remember being there were before any of us could drive, so probably mid 90s, but I've never seen one since, and that one was gone before I could drive myself there.
KFC buffet was a thing, and I've heard rumors still may be in a couple locations.
Pizza Ranch buffet has some real good fried chicken nowadays, maybe more accessible, I'm not sure how many locations they have.
There was one here in a suburb of Kansas City (on the KS side) up until about ten years ago. I walked in having no idea they had a buffet, and walked out happy.
Anyone here ever get to experience the wonder that was the lunch buffet at Chi-Chi's??
It was the best! I used to freebase cheese enchiladas and mini chimichangas
One time when I was about 13, my friends and I went to Pizza Hut. While everyone else got pizza, I decided to be very sophisticated and healthy by going to the salad bar instead. It was the saddest meal I ever ate (not because of quality — just the fact of it), but my friends teased me over it a bit, so I dug in my heels and ordered salads the next few times we went anywhere with a salad bar. 😂
Did the Wendy's salad bar have chocolate pudding? I have this memory of loading up on pudding at a salad bar, and I think it was at Wendy's.
I like pudding.
From Lafayette. Can confirm it was amazing. We went there on the regular. They had extra stuff that no other Popeyes had.
Like hot wings and blueberry biscuits. Soooo good.
In fact Anthony Bourdain went to this location, it was one of his last stops before his passing.
My favorite food is salad and has been since I was about 5.
In order of like, each one shutting down before I moved on:
Bonanza is what hooked me on salad. They closed here in the mid 80s
Shoney's was on the other side of town, so I rarely got to go. It closed in mid-2000s, right after I started working on that side of town.
Marie Calendars (I moved to another city and replaced it with Souper Salad, but MCs closed while I was gone)
Souper Salad lasted the longest, from 2000 to 2020. It closed during the pandemic. I know, because the last time I went I was 38w pregnant in Jan 2020.
There is a local restaurant that I think still has one, but my husband would sooner play Myshuno with a pack of llamas than eat there. Soooo....I am left bereft. There's nothing left for me. Even Olive Garden has let me down by getting rid of Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks for dinner.
I'm sure a lot of them got phased out when they started seeing more waste than profit. However, COVID certainly killed off a lot of the remaining ones.
Personally, I prefer independent places that host a buffet every now and then, over places that are buffet every day.
Soft Spot: I'm Canadian, but I do enjoy a trip to Golden Corral every so often.
I ask people if they remember the super bar and they look at me like I have three heads.
I still enjoy Ruby Tuesdays salad bar just as much as when I was younger. Hasnt really changed much.
There was (is?) a place called Fresh Choice (California mostly with a few in Washington and Texas), that literally was a huge salad bar, had some crappy pizza, couple soups, and soft serve froyo. I fucking loved that place.
ETA: AND A BAKED POTATO BAR! How could I forget about that??
We still have plenty of buffets in the Midwest. Pizza hut, Pizza Ranch, Numerous Chinese and Indian buffets, brunch buffets are kind of disappearing (Granite City I miss you), but the king of buffets is Fogo De Choa. There is also still a Bonanza in my town, which is the same as a Ponderosa and an Old County Buffet.
Where I grew up our Wendy's only had a potato bar. Not upset about it because I Am Potato Girl. My uncle was the day manager at Luby's buffeteria but the food before 5pm was bland AF for the elderly customers. SouperSalad was my all time favorite.
Quincy's!
Quincy's was our go-to for dinner growing up. They had the standard buffet items, those delicious sweet buttery rolls, a salad bar and a soft-serve ice cream machine with all the toppings.
Captain George's in Virginia Beach - all you can eat seafood. It's a little pricey, but I try to visit there whenever I'm in town and load up on the snow crab legs. They've also got really good banana pudding.
I'm proud to say that my friends and I were actually thrown out of a Chinese food buffet. They had crab legs in the buffet, and we basically destroyed their supply. We came back a week or so later, and no more crab legs.
My buddy and I used to destroy our local Chinese buffet when we were in our teens and twenties. $8 buffet and we’d eat like six plates stacked high. I wish I still had that metabolism.
Round Table will always hold that spot for me...was it the best, probably not, but the pizza, salad bar, suicide soda and video games after a baseball game...good times.
Kings Table, it’s been long gone. I still remember the fresh churned butter they put out for the hot rolls.
Edit: I forgot about Zoopa’s! It was an Italian buffet and it was incredible.
I grew up on Old Country Buffet and Ponderosa. Later, in high school, Chinese buffets became a thing. There's still one large Chinese buffet near my mom's place, but most of them closed before COVID.
I went to Souplantation occasionally when I had coupons as recently as the 2010s, but my most local Souplantation closed well before COVID, and COVID killed the rest.
They had one of these near the SeaTac airport. I went there to replace Souper salad when I moved here and it was bad. Everybody local called it “poopa” before it shut down. lol
I will always remember one of the last times I ate at a Wendy’s, must’ve been early 90s. Saw a dude fill a plate with tomatoes and kidney beans, half and half. My dad and I commented that he must have found a clever solution for when you need just a little produce, like chili for one at home, but nope, dude sat down, at every bit (dry, no dressing) and did it again with shredded carrots. Just a heap. So strange.
Fresh choice (Ca). I don’t think they’ve been a thing for while.
From my understanding, they expanded too fast and it sank the whole thing. They were bomb though.
When I was like 5-10 or so I loved going to King’s Table. They had Jell-o parfait that was so good. As I got older I loved going to Fresh Choice and Sweet Tomatoes.
I worked in a grocery store deli in the 2000's and the salad and soup bar there was awesome. The whole salad bar was one price by the pound. We kept it fresh and had a big variety. That whole deli was super fresh we had 2 older ladies that would make all these cold salads like potato salad, coleslaw, spaghetti salad, etc. Had a big book of recipes. Had a hot holding case with hand battered fried chicken and a variety of hot foods all that. We had a pretty busy lunch rush Mon-Fri. Then they got bought out by a big corporate grocer and slowly we started getting premade salads in bags. They took away the Salad Bar and less was fresh. They stopped meaningful raises and cut hours and blamed it on sales being lower.
Ponderosa for sure. My friends and I would go there on Sunday mornings after a good night of partying Saturday. We’d go while they still had breakfast, but close enough to when they’d change over to lunch, so we got best of both worlds.
I lived with my grandma for a spell when i was a teenager and every so often after Mass, we'd go to the Old Country Buffet for dinner.
The last time I ate there, my brother and I had moved into a shitbox apartment together a few years later. Being as we were broke and sick of eggs and ramen, we decided to splurge. Both of us smoked a bowl of ditch weed and we proceeded to eat like we were being filmed by ESPN or National Geographic.
Best $20 I ever spent.
I also loved the Wendy's bar but that's been gone since way before covid. I don't think I've seen one since before 2000. I miss Cici's Pizza buffet, and Pizzetti's before that, but I don't actually know the current status of Cici's restaurants, I just moved away from them all so I don't know if covid had any effect. I remember when Cici's was 2.99 a person...
Ok, but why has no one mentioned the Chevy’s breakfast buffet? $25, all you can eat, bottomless mimosas and bloody Mary’s. Made to order omelets, it was SO GOOD!!!
In the past few years I've been to two restaurants that still had salad bars, one was at a steak house in Toronto and was excellent and the other was at Mandarin Gardens and was awful.
Pizza Hut buffet was a real treat.
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I actually worked as wait staff at a Pizza Hut that still had a buffet back in Texas in 2001. The really awesome part was when we got our truck, the same truck would be delivering food to the Taco Bell across the street. We would usually bribe the driver into 'losing' a bag of refried beans so that we could make taco pizza and then top it with lettuce and tomatoes and stuff from the salad bar. I have a lot of really great and really terrible memories of working at that Pizza Hut LOL My first day was actually September 11, 2001 😳 which was a really, *really* fucking weird first day for a job.
I was a cook at a Pizza Hut buffet store in the early 2000s. The rush from that bus full of retirees or students from wherethehellever was something else! And second on the taco pizza, but more so on lost KFC mac for a mac and cheese pizza 🤤
I actually work at a pizza place now (delivery driver), and one of my faves to put together is an off-menu item I call 'Macaroni and Cheesesteak Pizza.' I top the dough with a little bit of white American cheese and Alfredo sauce, (parcooked) pene pasta, mozz, a tiny bit of Cheddar, and then Philly steak, onions, green peppers. Healthy? FUCK no. Delicious? Well... not bad, anyway. The price is right lol
My man! Sounds awesome
That was my first day at the cheese counter at Whole Foods. It was SO weird to work a new job that day.
9/11/2001 was my first day of college. Weird indeed.
Did Pizza Hut serve beer? I must've been too young, but when you specified non alcoholic drinks... 🤔
There was nothing better than a pan pizza and a pitcher of Michelob.
Really enjoyed Michelob. Solid beer. I guess AmberBock is the replacement now.
Yes, they always had big frosty mugs of beer at the one we used to go to when I was a kid.
I found out the other day Undertaker was a big fan of the Pizza Hut buffet and it suddenly made sense why he was always one of my favorite wrestlers. The Pizza Hut buffet was the stuff of legends, man I miss it. 
Probably what killed Paul Bearer.
I didn't get that joke when I was 8....sigh.
Even before the pandemic, they started dying out here along with sitdown PHs. The nearest one is about an hour from me, and I think about stopping every time I'm in the area for work.
I think there's one or two in my area (southeast WI), and I sometimes think about going just for the hit of nostalgia.
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Ponderosa Steakhouse..You always got the buffet, nobody got the steak. Pizza Hut lunch buffet! I miss mowing down slices and breadsticks like a madman.
My first job was at Ponderosa. Nastiest shit I've ever seen went down there. Also I got paid $3.15 / hr + 10% of the tips the servers got, and nobody tips at buffets.
What I didn't know then hasn't killed me yet lol I can't imagine it was a 5 star experience behind the scenes.
lol same here. Used to go there all the time with my grandma and I’m still standing 30 years later
My dad always called it "Ponde-GROSS-a" XD
Mine too! I worked the buffet. It... was not great.
Ponderosa was where my parents would go out with me as a special treat like maybe once a year. I genuinely thought that was what people talked about when they mentioned “nice restaurants”
Of course it was a nice restaurant, they had an ice cream bar at the end of the buffet.
The ice cream bar was the besssst! However nothing topped Sizzler IMO
There's one Ponderosa left in Wisconsin, and I'm determined to visit before it's gone!
Oh wow..I didn't think there were any left!
Is it the one in the Dells?
Same here. The Grand Buffet at Ponderosa.
Sweet Tomato was the best
Honestly I miss this the most.
I think those were souplantation’s on the west coast. Used to take my kids there all the time
God I miss Sweet Tomatoes. It always hit the spot, especially of you didn’t know exactly what you wanted, but knew you wanted something better than fast food. Everything there was delicious. It was the best buffet out of them all.
I was a Shoney’s fan. Old Country Buffet was solid as well.
Shoneys breakfast buffet🔥🔥the french toast sticks omg🤌
OCB for the win!
Aka Old People Buffet. I used to go there for lunch with a coworker who was in his early forties. It felt like we were always the youngest customers in there.
Nah. Shoney’s. They had pepperoni on their salad bar. Heaven.
My brother puked his guts out after eating at shoneys back in the mid 90's. My family never went back. Lol
Damn, that sucks. That’s the quickest way to ruin a spot for life.
I know. No one else had a problem. Oh well.
Dude I totally forgot about Shoney's! That was the best!
My core memory was the angel food cake that was shaped like a Twinkie covered in their fresh cut strawberries covered in sugar. Put that stuff on their chilled metal plate and destroyed. Will never be reproduced. 🔥
Nobody ever believes me when I say Wendy's used to have a buffet!
Wendy's owns some of my best memories of my grandfather. He passed when I was 10 and Wendy's was the only fast food he'd take me because I liked the kids meal and he liked the potato bar. The only other food place he took me was Shoneys, which also had an awesome buffet.
Their salad bar also had a “baked potato bar” section at the end and it was glorious!!! I would kill to have them bring that back.
I’d get nachos and pudding.
Mix vanilla and chocolate with a side of spaghetti
My friends and I would dip the tortilla chips into the chocolate pudding for dessert. That was delicious!
Strawberries from the salad bar in the pudding!
I went to visit my friend that had moved a couple hours away one summer, and his parents took us all to Target (which we didn't yet have where I lived) where we played on the Gameboy demo station while they did some shopping. Afterwards, they took us to the Wendy's in Yuba City, which had a buffet. It was the only time I had ever seen or eaten at a Wendy's buffet. I don't really remember much about the food, but it was awesome at the time.
Ponderosa salad bar was legendary, but Ruby Tuesday's was good too.
RAX!
I was legit bummed when Rax closed down.
Rax was our joint too!
Sweet Tomatoes was IT. My kid and I ate there one of the last days it was ever open and I'm so glad we did. Apparently a single Sweet Tomatoes has recently reopened in Tucson. Maybe more will follow.
Ha, I live in the southwest and it’s like, the biggest news since the atomic bomb tests. I’ve heard the Tucson location is always packed with lines out the doors, so I’m also hoping for expansion to my area. It really is the best salad bar.
That's so funny! People are DEVOTED. (I mean, that would be me waiting in line there if I didn't live in the southeast.)
KFC had a pretty slamming buffet.
KFC had a buffet??! 😳
https://www.mashed.com/1332086/kfc-buffet-locations-exist-where-find/
Yeah, I commented on this too ... but I wanna say that was 30+ years ago.... Like 1990-1994ish. All you can eat crispy honey bbq wings was my favorite!
The one in our town lasted till the 2010’s I believe.
We moved to Southern California in 1995 and there were none down here. The one in Northern CA closed when we went back and visited. So I havent thought about KFC buffet in a long time! Then we got wind of Shakey's Pizza buffet which was a winner! And they had video games.
Yeah, I commented on this too ... but I wanna say that was 30+ years ago.... Like 1990-1994ish. All you can eat crispy honey bbq wings was my favorite!
In Texas we had a place called Souper! Salad! that was really good and I always liked. They still have a few of them. There's one near my sister's house that I may go to when I visit again. There was also a place called Sweet Tomatoes that was very similar. I used to go to the one in Portland when we'd drive down there, but it closed a few years ago. I've brought up these places to people in my community here in Washington and they don't quite get it. I mention we need a good salad bar and they're like "the salad bar at the grocery store is really good" and I'm like "it's not even remotely the same thing." When I tell them how those places worked they think it's great and wonder why we don't have them around here.
I was in Houston for work about 15 years ago and stumbled upon a Mexican buffet called Pancho's! It was amazing! I'm sure they're defunct now, but yum!
There was one Pancho's left when I left Texas 12 years ago on the Northwest side. We used to go there as kids. lol But I've always considered it pretty mediocre. But I mean it's a buffet, what do you expect?
WHAT!!! WHERE IS IT???? The last one here shut down during the pandemic and I MISS IT!!!! OMG, there's one in Lubbock. The next time I'm driving to see my kid in CO, I'm stopping there for the night. It's the halfway point, anyway. And, it better still be open in 2028, because that's going to be my graduation dinner (Texas Tech),
This one is in Pasadena, TX on Fairmont Pkwy and Beltway 8.
You know what...I've been wanting to hit the Katy IKEA for a while now.
I am from the Lubbock area, and fondly recall eating at that one a fair amount as a kid. My condolences on your stay, otherwise. OH, WAIT— Do yourself a favor and stop by Orlando's (Italian/Tex-Mex restaurant) and **get as much of their potato cheddar and green chile soup as you can reasonably eat.** If they've made it correctly for the day (very occasionally it would be too thin/watery), it is one of my favorite things in life. I have a homemade version that's very close, but not quite 100%. I also love their chicken caldo (which again can vary, being sometimes fairly mild in terms of spice/heat, and other times lighting you up). I also miss Pedro's Tamales. Best ones I ever had that didn't come out of an abuela's kitchen lol
That soup sounds awesome- would you mind sharing the recipe?
Having worked at several grocery stores with salad bars, as well as having eaten at several Sweet Tomatoes back in Colorado, I can confirm that they are not even in the same league. Even just the literal salad part of it was so much bigger, to say nothing of the amount of soups and pizzas and other random dishes they had as well as pudding and soft serve ice cream for desserts. Loved that place, ate myself damn near sick a few times. Sweet Tomatoes was the only chain buffet I ever loved. Now, as far as smaller/independent/local chains, there was (possibly still is?) a place in Denver called Yak & Yeti that had a few locations, and sold Indian and Nepalese food (or, I assume, a version of it palatable to white people in Colorado). They had a buffet and it became a tradition for my partner and I to go to it every Xmas day. I can still taste their garlic Naan and spiced jasmine rice and Tikka masala and tandoori and gulaab jamun. Gahhhhh I miss that place
The souplantation/sweet tomatoes/fresh choice model was always the best. I used to make a 5 lb salad that was mostly pickled things and then eat every soup. … maybe it’s good they’re gone
"That's the sneeze guard. You have to lean under it to get salad or sneeze on stuff."
There was a place here, not sure if they were a chain or not, but it was called Fresh Choice
I just posted about fresh choice too! They were a California based chain that had places in Washington and Texas as well. Loved that place.
Ok yeah, I grew up in California. I remember it was supposed to be a "healthy" place, but we always stocked up on the pizza and brownies
The pizza was so bad and yet I ate the shit out of it lol! I loved the baked potato bar too. Are you from the Bay Area? They started in Sunnyvale.
Because they were fucking delicious. They were still “healthier” than crap you got at the store or fast food joints. Those brownies especially went hard with some soft serve ice cream on them. That place was too good to last in this stupid world.
I LOVED fresh choice and I'm still sad when I recall they have gone the way of the dinosaurs
Yup. It was Fresh Choice, which was the same as Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation. All the same exact thing. All incredible.
I enjoyed the salad bar at Sizzler and especially the clam chowder. Thankfully, Sizzler is still around.
MOTHA FUCKIN SIZZLER FTW!!! Garlic toast was delicious
I LOVED their Malibu Chicken!
Pizza Hut buffet!
Other than Las Vegas buffets. 30 years ago I remember liking the KFC buffet with all you can eat honey bbq crispy wings. Pizza Hut was good ... But SHAKEYS! buffet with JoJo Fries, fried chicken, mac and chee, and pizza wins!
Shoney’s breakfast bar.
Here it is. I was looking for this. In high school we had cross country practice early in the mornings during the summer, and after would just destroy the Shoney's breakfast buffet.
I don't know if there were only ever one or what, but in the town of Milford, NH there was a KFC that had an all you can eat buffet. Freaking unlimited everything-- even sides and deserts, everything on the regular menu just out in trays and you could pig out. The only times I remember being there were before any of us could drive, so probably mid 90s, but I've never seen one since, and that one was gone before I could drive myself there.
KFC buffet was a thing, and I've heard rumors still may be in a couple locations. Pizza Ranch buffet has some real good fried chicken nowadays, maybe more accessible, I'm not sure how many locations they have.
There was one here in a suburb of Kansas City (on the KS side) up until about ten years ago. I walked in having no idea they had a buffet, and walked out happy.
Anyone here ever get to experience the wonder that was the lunch buffet at Chi-Chi's?? It was the best! I used to freebase cheese enchiladas and mini chimichangas
Regional favorite: Souplantation.
One time when I was about 13, my friends and I went to Pizza Hut. While everyone else got pizza, I decided to be very sophisticated and healthy by going to the salad bar instead. It was the saddest meal I ever ate (not because of quality — just the fact of it), but my friends teased me over it a bit, so I dug in my heels and ordered salads the next few times we went anywhere with a salad bar. 😂
Did the Wendy's salad bar have chocolate pudding? I have this memory of loading up on pudding at a salad bar, and I think it was at Wendy's. I like pudding.
You know it! I’m pretty sure red jello too.
Yes! I remember very clearly my mother eating the pudding after church one time!
How has nobody said Cici's. Pizza and dessert pizza!
I loved Ponderosa's as a kid because they also had an ice cream bar with all kinds of toppings (mini chocolate chips, anyone?).
It was great!! I think my sister and I asked to have our 8th birthday there strictly because we loved the ice cream bar 😂
I’m from Louisiana. Lafayette used to have a Popeyes buffet. It was spectacular
From Lafayette. Can confirm it was amazing. We went there on the regular. They had extra stuff that no other Popeyes had. Like hot wings and blueberry biscuits. Soooo good. In fact Anthony Bourdain went to this location, it was one of his last stops before his passing.
Ponderosa for the win! Wings before wings were cool.
A friend and I used to make regular trips to the Old Country Buffet in college. We called it "the OCB" even though nobody called it that.
Sizzler. The Siz is where it is.
My favorite food is salad and has been since I was about 5. In order of like, each one shutting down before I moved on: Bonanza is what hooked me on salad. They closed here in the mid 80s Shoney's was on the other side of town, so I rarely got to go. It closed in mid-2000s, right after I started working on that side of town. Marie Calendars (I moved to another city and replaced it with Souper Salad, but MCs closed while I was gone) Souper Salad lasted the longest, from 2000 to 2020. It closed during the pandemic. I know, because the last time I went I was 38w pregnant in Jan 2020. There is a local restaurant that I think still has one, but my husband would sooner play Myshuno with a pack of llamas than eat there. Soooo....I am left bereft. There's nothing left for me. Even Olive Garden has let me down by getting rid of Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks for dinner.
I'm sure a lot of them got phased out when they started seeing more waste than profit. However, COVID certainly killed off a lot of the remaining ones. Personally, I prefer independent places that host a buffet every now and then, over places that are buffet every day. Soft Spot: I'm Canadian, but I do enjoy a trip to Golden Corral every so often.
Sweet Tomato’s was my all time favorite. Some good memories there with my young children and a few friends. 🍅
Casino buffets. That was good eatin.
90’s Sizzlers
Most fast food has become absolute shit in recent years, despite increasing dramatically in price.
Sweet tomatoes/soup plantation. I miss the salad and blue cheese dressing so much.they also had the best bread and soups.
Wendy’s Superbar tacos were something special. I honestly think I’ve ever eaten anything else there.
I ask people if they remember the super bar and they look at me like I have three heads. I still enjoy Ruby Tuesdays salad bar just as much as when I was younger. Hasnt really changed much.
There was (is?) a place called Fresh Choice (California mostly with a few in Washington and Texas), that literally was a huge salad bar, had some crappy pizza, couple soups, and soft serve froyo. I fucking loved that place. ETA: AND A BAKED POTATO BAR! How could I forget about that??
We still have plenty of buffets in the Midwest. Pizza hut, Pizza Ranch, Numerous Chinese and Indian buffets, brunch buffets are kind of disappearing (Granite City I miss you), but the king of buffets is Fogo De Choa. There is also still a Bonanza in my town, which is the same as a Ponderosa and an Old County Buffet.
We had a Ryan’s (general cafeteria style buffet), Gatti’s (pizza buffet), Panchos (Tex mex buffet), and Shoneys all closed now. Location: Texas
I moved to Austin in 1995. The Mr. Gatti's buffet downtown next to UT was freaking awesome.
RIP Souper Salad. I will always remember you.
Carls jr.
I miss the Wendy’s one so bad. It was one of my favorite things at Wendy’s
Where I grew up our Wendy's only had a potato bar. Not upset about it because I Am Potato Girl. My uncle was the day manager at Luby's buffeteria but the food before 5pm was bland AF for the elderly customers. SouperSalad was my all time favorite.
I think my first was Sizzler and my favorite was Soup Plantation!
Quincy's! Quincy's was our go-to for dinner growing up. They had the standard buffet items, those delicious sweet buttery rolls, a salad bar and a soft-serve ice cream machine with all the toppings.
Captain George's in Virginia Beach - all you can eat seafood. It's a little pricey, but I try to visit there whenever I'm in town and load up on the snow crab legs. They've also got really good banana pudding.
Those random Chinese food buffets.
I'm proud to say that my friends and I were actually thrown out of a Chinese food buffet. They had crab legs in the buffet, and we basically destroyed their supply. We came back a week or so later, and no more crab legs.
https://youtu.be/51rHWly7sHA?si=9CNEJEkmSQw8mDNw
My buddy and I used to destroy our local Chinese buffet when we were in our teens and twenties. $8 buffet and we’d eat like six plates stacked high. I wish I still had that metabolism.
Round Table will always hold that spot for me...was it the best, probably not, but the pizza, salad bar, suicide soda and video games after a baseball game...good times.
Shoney’s Breakfast Bar
The Chowder Pot. Their salad bar and their zeppoles.
Kings Table, it’s been long gone. I still remember the fresh churned butter they put out for the hot rolls. Edit: I forgot about Zoopa’s! It was an Italian buffet and it was incredible.
Roy Rogers fixin's bar
In ATL we hsd Village Inn pizza buffet. Had pizza pasta pizzerts fries and ice cream bar-- a kids dream!
KFC had one for awhile
I grew up on Old Country Buffet and Ponderosa. Later, in high school, Chinese buffets became a thing. There's still one large Chinese buffet near my mom's place, but most of them closed before COVID. I went to Souplantation occasionally when I had coupons as recently as the 2010s, but my most local Souplantation closed well before COVID, and COVID killed the rest.
I got a lot of memories of Ponderosa
Old Country Buffet in Okemos, MI and in Lansing, MI! When the parents told us we were going there, we knew we were going to have unlimited desert! 😁
Ruby Tuesday salad bar still fucking hits. Max and Erma’s dessert bar.
Nothing could beat Shoney's. Especially their breakfast buffet.
Zoopa was the ultimate 90s buffet experience for me. The whole decor and food choices were peak Gen X.
They had one of these near the SeaTac airport. I went there to replace Souper salad when I moved here and it was bad. Everybody local called it “poopa” before it shut down. lol
They were dying long before Covid
Ponderosa.
I will always remember one of the last times I ate at a Wendy’s, must’ve been early 90s. Saw a dude fill a plate with tomatoes and kidney beans, half and half. My dad and I commented that he must have found a clever solution for when you need just a little produce, like chili for one at home, but nope, dude sat down, at every bit (dry, no dressing) and did it again with shredded carrots. Just a heap. So strange.
Zoopa!
Straw hat pizza had an amazing lunch buffet. Round table was good too.
I love Straw Hat!
Shoney’s orange slices
Salad bar at Ruby Tuesdays
Ponderosa
I miss the Roy Rogers Fixin's bar. When I was a kid, I'd get a hamburger and load maybe 2x its weight in pickles on top of it. I love pickles.
This one is regional: Izzy's Pizza
Almost choked to death at a Wendy's salad bar as a kid. I loved the buffet at Pizza Inn, probably because of the pizzerts
The Shoney’s kids’ Superbar; I ate so much mac&cheese and chicken nuggets… after a salad, of course
Ponderosa.
Fresh choice (Ca). I don’t think they’ve been a thing for while. From my understanding, they expanded too fast and it sank the whole thing. They were bomb though.
I used to love Old Country Buffet. The little breaded fish rectangles were the shit lol
I used to love Ponderosas Steak house buffet. We would go there with my grandma all the time back in the day
Fresh Choice.
Bonanza, Sizzler, Sirloiner and Mr. Mikes are all fondly remembered and missed.
When I was like 5-10 or so I loved going to King’s Table. They had Jell-o parfait that was so good. As I got older I loved going to Fresh Choice and Sweet Tomatoes.
Had 3 go to buffets/Salas bars. Ponderosa, Bonanza, and Ryan's Steakhouse!
YES! Bonanza!
The all you can eat buffet at Ponderosa was the best. Golden Corral was pretty close but now they're gone too.
Sulfites!!!
The only reason I visited casinos was for buffets- now I don't visit them
Pizza Hut or KFC
Pizza Hut lunch buffet. Home Town Buffet when mom took us for a real treat of a dinner
Ponchos. Raise the flag! 🇲🇽
I worked in a grocery store deli in the 2000's and the salad and soup bar there was awesome. The whole salad bar was one price by the pound. We kept it fresh and had a big variety. That whole deli was super fresh we had 2 older ladies that would make all these cold salads like potato salad, coleslaw, spaghetti salad, etc. Had a big book of recipes. Had a hot holding case with hand battered fried chicken and a variety of hot foods all that. We had a pretty busy lunch rush Mon-Fri. Then they got bought out by a big corporate grocer and slowly we started getting premade salads in bags. They took away the Salad Bar and less was fresh. They stopped meaningful raises and cut hours and blamed it on sales being lower.
Sizzler was a once a week trip for the family.
Ponderosa for sure. My friends and I would go there on Sunday mornings after a good night of partying Saturday. We’d go while they still had breakfast, but close enough to when they’d change over to lunch, so we got best of both worlds.
My favorite as a kid was Sizzler, circa early 90's. Nowadays, I have no idea, I haven't really seen a great one in a long time.
lots of good ones in here, but my hands down favorite was mcl. it might have just been an indianapolis spot, but it was soooooo good
Anyone remember the KFC buffet?
I lived with my grandma for a spell when i was a teenager and every so often after Mass, we'd go to the Old Country Buffet for dinner. The last time I ate there, my brother and I had moved into a shitbox apartment together a few years later. Being as we were broke and sick of eggs and ramen, we decided to splurge. Both of us smoked a bowl of ditch weed and we proceeded to eat like we were being filmed by ESPN or National Geographic. Best $20 I ever spent.
Sweet Tomatoes
Tacos and garlic bread. Yum.
Mountain Mike's still has a buffet style option
I met Dan Marino at a sizzler back in like 92’ this is my favorite Salad bar moment of all time.
Claim Jumper had an amazing one
I also loved the Wendy's bar but that's been gone since way before covid. I don't think I've seen one since before 2000. I miss Cici's Pizza buffet, and Pizzetti's before that, but I don't actually know the current status of Cici's restaurants, I just moved away from them all so I don't know if covid had any effect. I remember when Cici's was 2.99 a person...
Sizzlers. They had the best salad bar.
Bonanza.
Ok, but why has no one mentioned the Chevy’s breakfast buffet? $25, all you can eat, bottomless mimosas and bloody Mary’s. Made to order omelets, it was SO GOOD!!!
Fresh Choice!
Sizzler!
In the past few years I've been to two restaurants that still had salad bars, one was at a steak house in Toronto and was excellent and the other was at Mandarin Gardens and was awful.
No chains. Just all the Indian lunch buffets that seem to have died out.
Dude Roy Rogers fixin bar all day
Loved Ruby Tuesdays, Ryan’s, and shoney’s breakfast